Will Muschamp and 'Spurs Up' tour comes to Inman

Thursday

South Carolina football coach Will Muchamp’s annual area stop on his spring "Spurs Up" Tour ran into a bit of a delay Thursday after severe weather altered his flight plans into Spartanburg County.

But he was worth the wait for the over 200 fans at The Lodge at Lake Bowen Commons where athletic director Ray Tanner was also in attendance as a backup speaker should Muschamp have been unable to make it.

“Be honest, if he couldn’t make it, you were stuck with me and how many of you would’ve stuck around,” Tanner quipped to huge applause before going on to introduce his head coach. He began by mentioning USC’s athletic department was one of the few athletic departments turning a yearly profit.

“Now don’t get me wrong, (Muschamp) is expensive,” Tanner said to more laughter. “And it’s not because of his salary, but because he likes to build stuff.”

Tanner went on to say quarterback Jake Bentley was currently working with him as an intern “so I’m going to find out all I need to know about our football program in the next two weeks.”

As for his aforementioned fondness for building things, Muschamp said the school’s new $50 million football operations building, measuring 110,000 square feet with a 20,000-square foot weight room, is scheduled to be completed in December.

Muschamp described it as “breathtaking. It’s an amazing facility we’ve been able to design with what we wanted to go into it, and it does have some nice amenities for the players, but it’s meant to be a training facility and also a showplace. I’ve taken several recruits in there and they told me they’ve never seen anything like it in the country. It’s first-class and going to be a game-changer for us.”

Muschamp also touted upgrades in a team living facility on campus, the academic enrichment center, and other resources.

“You look at it from the standpoint of where our players are going to live, train, eat, and study and it’s as fine as anywhere in the country and that’s why things are moving so well for us right now.”

That forward progress has taken a program that was 3-9 in 2015 the year prior to Muschamp’s arrival to 9-4 last year, including a bowl win over Michigan. The Gamecocks return the vast majority of their offensive unit, including top playmaker Deebo Samuel, in addition to enough potential on the defensive side to raise expectations to their highest since he stepped on campus.

“Let’s don’t confuse progress with achievement,” Muschamp said. “We haven’t accomplished anything. Our goal every year in our program is to win our state and to win the (SEC) East. If you win the East you’re playing in Atlanta and if you win there, you’re in the college football playoff, and that’s our goal every year.

“Somebody asked me about having a three or five-year plan and I said I have a one-year plan and we haven’t achieved it yet. That’s the bottom line and what our goal is. I think our players understand that and know our staff does and I want the fan-base to understand what we’re striving for every day.”

Muschamp knew he had to get in a couple of mentions regarding a pair of highly popular Upstate products in senior receiver Samuel, a Chapman alum, and former Byrnes and USC running back Marcus Lattimore, now overseeing the team’s Beyond Football program.

Lattimore received the loudest applause of Muschamp’s presentation.

“He’s basically dealing with everything past Saturdays, real life issues,” Muschamp said. “We teach all of this on the side and you know you’ve done things right when we’ve had 8-to-10 guys on the team say thank you for hiring Marcus. He’s a guy who loves USC and has been there and done that, faced great tragedy and triumph, and done it all as a Gamecock.”

As for Samuel, who is returning after missing most of last season due to injury, Muschamp said, “Getting Deebo back means an awful lot to our team and not just from a playmaking standpoint. He practices the right way, goes out and practices really fast and it lets other guys see that’s that way you’re supposed to do it all the time.”

Muschamp would end his speech saying, “I’m excited about where we are, but more where we’re headed. We’ve got a vision of where we’re going and where we want to be and everybody in the organization is on the same page. We are all pulling in the same direction and that’s as exciting as anything.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.